Food banks and heating advice present Open Eye Gallery’s socially engaged photography credentials in a series of connected exhibitions, produced and invited by the gallery.
A notice board greets you first. Packed across every inch of space with ways to get involved in creative projects, access money advice, and keep warm this winter, The board sets the scene for an exhibition of art that’s been useful, and that will probably continue to be useful to them.
This way of making art, particularly through photography and literature, isn’t just good for the people involved, it’s significantly easier to read as a viewer.
You’re not having to break it down to understand where the protest is, or what the change should be. It’s there in full colour. Valuable spaces have been lost. Financial resilience is a memory. There are people who can help with that, and this project, literally, lists them.
If you need support or advice on how to keep your home warm, it’s there. If you need directions to a food bank, it’s there. If you want to know that you’re not in the same boat, and that it’s ok to be happy while you’re struggling, that reassurance is there.
Struggling for money, and worrying about heating your home are part of the national psyche now. We’re all in it together, and it’s not fun. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t communities who can help you feel good about it all, and support you in realising that making ends meet can be a joyful process.
And in a similar vein, rediscovering your neighbourhood. Not just knowing what’s being done in buildings you thought were for others, but actually finding out how to get involved.
Highlighting the work of Homebaked, Liverpool Lighthouse, Garston Aventure Playground. It’s all part of living better in your own space.
All of the above is mixed up, but that’s because the distinction between the smaller parts of The Flowers Still Grow are ideologically connected.
A separate exhibition outside, Kirsty Mackey’s ‘The Magic Money Tree’, questions “to what extent is poverty a political choice?” So you enter the gallery with that in mind.
But still, despite the political context, The Flowers Still Grow is a hopeful exhibition that bolsters community efforts against the failures of austerity, producing a story of aspiration on an individual and community level.
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The Flowers Still Grow is optn until 27th October
The Magic Money Tree is open until 13th October
Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith